SET for Orchestral , Big Band etc.

All things being equal (power, class A, good components) a similar powered push/pull tube amp will have a bit more "slam" than a comparable SET amplifier. A quality 300b push/pull interstage coupled hard wired amp with quality trannies will make your heart sing on complex orchestral works with the right speakers.

hi,

Pawlowski6132 2a3's are easy to get, a lot of tube dealers will have them. A pair of Sovtek 2A3's will cost about $70.00

Jdombrow I'm using Klipsch Cornwall spaekers, 15" woofer and mid and high horns. They do well with tubes and SETs. You can get them used for about $800.00

good listening,

Larry

Phase angle is a by product of the crossover design. It's a good way to measure some of the difficulty or ease the amp will have driving the speakers. A benign phase angle will reflect a stable impedance load and therefore an amp has to work less hard to get the speakers up and running.

Having a stable (not to low and not too high and not wild swings) impendance load is just as important as efficiency. A speaker can show 91db eff. but have a wide impedance swing across the frequency spectrum (say, 3.5 ohms to 20 ohms) and therefore require a great deal of current to get going. Some Wilson Audio designs have fit this description.

Merlin TSMs are kind of the opposite - efficiency of 88-89db but a very stable and quite narrow impedance band and therefore quite easy to drive. I had a pair of them which the 300B amp drove just fine in my small room. Same thing for two ProAc models. I now have Harbeth C7s which, while wonderful speakers, need some current to sound their best. The Air Tight does not work well with them so I have a Plinius 50 watter which does superbly. Soliloquy speakers also are generally easy to drive but their sound is not to my taste.

Best thing to do is search this website for discussions about SET friendly speakers (there've been many of them). I would also always contact the manufacturer or importer of
whatever you are considering.

Also, 300B tubes are about 3 times as powerful as the 2A3 so you will need a speaker of at least 95db with and easy impedance load with the 2A3s. This substantially narrows your list. Horn speakers are an option but, man, do they have their own sound and you would absolutely have to try them in your room first. I've always found horns do best in med or larger rooms as I think you need to sit in the med or far field to not get that "honk-glare" effect.

I personally have never heard one that didn't have some of that stuff. I personally like a more relaxed, less tense presentation. But, this is all personal taste. I have a friend who loves his horn loaded Lowthers but I can't stay in the room for more than 2 minutes.

Cary 805C's with the right tube combination will do what you ask with most speakers. The 845C metal plate tube works well for the big orchestra sound.

It's not that SETs, per se, can't handle large-scale orchestral music, it's more the case of people trying to couple inappropriate speakers to low-powered SETs. I have no problems with 8 watts of SET power (parallel 2a3s) on 99 db/w efficient speakers that are an easy load. I also get reasonable volume level with a pushpull 45 amp (about 3 watts). Both can do the closing minutes of Mahler's 8th at reasonably realistic levels.

By the way, I think choral music is a much harder test of output cabability for most amps than orchestral music. At surprisingly low subjective levels, choral music can start to sound strained and rough. Try Rachmaninov's Vespers, as an example of this phenomenon.